I have embarked on a journey to learn how to create special effects for videos! I need your suggestions for a short video.

For the past few years I have provided classes, demos, and some insight on the latest digital communication mediums (and a few non digital), and I have decided to shake things up a bit; however, I need your assistance. This past weekend I created my first attempt at using some cheesy special effects, and when I say cheesy I mean so terrible that even nachos wouldn’t deserve it. Clearly I lack the ability to create a story worthy of goofy action effects, and that is where you come in.

I am looking for suggestions on building out a very short video choke full of different effects, purely for the ability to build something and gain some experience from it. I don’t care if it involves space, talking tacos with missile launchers or the end of the world; as long as it can have a crazy effect added into it. I will call it even for all those pro bono consulting hours and classes I have provided . Full credit will be given to anyone that throws me a bone, and if you feel like making some terrible videos after a few beers, shoot me a message.

So without further adieu, here is my incredibly terrible Nerf gun modification video with a random effect added in. (Note, sound effects could be a lot better, and I didn’t waste time with video transitions or anything but the effect)

Why hello there students! Today we embark on a mission to identify what platform your blog will live on, and generally it helps to pick the right one from the start.

You have identified your blogs theme, created an editorial calendar (if you haven’t done this, stop reading and do it), and even thought up some great first posts to write about; however, you need to find the proper home for your content. Not all platforms were built the same, and based on what you want to do with them you should be able to cut out a few options.

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Free or Paid?

If you are just starting, go free. Don’t waste your time on purchasing a domain, yet, and definitely do not waste money on themes or design work. Every platform has quite a few awesome stock themes to work with, and most are incredibly customizable for the sum of zero dollars (they usually place ads on your site). If this is going to be a blog for a product, company, or advocacy group you may want to skip the free blog and move into the paid domains to ensure there are no competing ads appearing.

This guide will show you how to purchase or place your blog on your own domain through their provider, and list resources on how to install a site directly into your site on your own (not my videos).

Easiest Options, Design Inept

For those of you who want to create content on the fly, have no idea what HTML is and like sharing pretty pictures your first options would be tumblr or Posterous. Both are quite similar, except for Twitter just recently purchasing Posterous so there are likely changes in the future (this could be both good and bad, so keep an eye on it). I won’t go into great depths between the two, but it just so happens that there are dozens of blogs that already do this.

The bottom line is that you can use either Posterous or tumblr with very little technical know how, and if you get an awesome following you can very easily place the blog on your own domain. To get tumblr on your own domain you don’t need to pay for hosting, so it’s cheaper, but could be complicated for some. Tumblr domain instructions, or instructions on a GoDaddy domain. For Posterous, the process is just about the same.

Cost - tumblr or Posterous cost – Annual cost of the domain name, between $1 – $15.

Awesome Search Ranking, Over Customization For Free

Blogger is a pretty popular tool, and you may have heard of the company that owns it, Google. As a result of Google owning Blogger your stuff is bound to hit their search results just a bit better than any of the other free platforms. The platform allows for a great deal of customization, and you can even create custom themes by adding your own CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). It also even connects you to Google+, though is not known to be the most popular social network, sharing your content on there does help increase your search rank as well.

Cost - If you decide to go free you can buy a domain directly through Google (free hosting), or purchase your own domain and hosting [Step-by-step instructions]. Purchasing through Google will cost you $10 a year.

Exterminate, Exterminate

You can go ahead and ignore the rest of the options, and just go get a free wordpress account. Unless you are going to require some heavy search rankings from the very start (Blogger), WordPress is likely going to be your best option. It is free, quite customizable, and

I know, I know, we are supposed to hate GoDaddy; however, for cheap ass blogging they are among some of the cheapest options. The only reason I will mention this domain and hosting provider rather than others is because you can very easily install WordPress, Drupal and a few other tools with just a few clicks. Go find a domain promo code (it should cost less than $5 for a .com domain for your first year), and then get the WordPress hosting plan. Here is a random video that shows you how easy it is to install. Also there is a nice collection of videos that tell you how to install and do pretty much everything you need to maintain it, here.

Godaddy cost (cheapest option) – About $60 a year for hosting, and between $1 – $15 for a domain. Unless you are hosting huge images (just use Flickr) get the cheapest, annual option. This does not count the cost of a theme that you purchase, but there are hundreds if not thousands of free awesome ones to choose from. Perks of WordPress being open sourced.

bluehost cost – About $84 a year for hosting, and around $12 for a domain. This also allows for one click installs of WordPress, but costs a bit more.

WordPress.com Cost – Annual fees of $17 for the domain, $30 for removing ads, $20 for 10GB of space (very limited on the free one), and $30 to edit the CSS.

Live Journal

Move your mouse over to the “x” on this browser (top right), and click it as fast as you can.

Final Thoughts

While clearly I’m a bit devoted to using WordPress, any of these tools would do well for you. Just remember that the more creative and customization you want in a site, the more likely you will need your own domain. If you are planning on installing one of these tools on your own domain and have questions, feel free to send them my way. I have built an unfortunate amount of blog based sites, and I have seen almost every bug possible with WordPress (thanks wife).

Map of where to best see Discovery, in the DC area

View Sites for Viewing Space Shuttle Discovery in a larger map

Well what do you know, Tupac isn’t dead after all, sort of.

Coachella is among some of the most bad ass annual concert series in the US, and not only did they live stream the entire thing on three different YouTube channels this year, but they also brought Tupac back from the dead. Now it’s just a matter of time before they bring back all of the most popular classic artists, and sadly it won’t be due to their become zombies.

Spotted from @KevinOlivieri

So you want to create your own blog? Congratulations! You are now one step closer to joining the 152 million or more other people, companies, startups, and family pets that already have one. [Source]

Needless to say that based on the sure volume of content that is being generated on a daily basis, that many blogs go unnoticed and eventually wither away. So my question for you is, what do you want to get out of creating a blog?

If it is to identify yourself as someone knowledgeable about a subject, share your thoughts or opinions on potentially anything, generate original stories, discuss business practices, or maybe to start your career in an adult industry (thank you not to be named, student), then creating a blog may very well be something worthy of your time.

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Before you choose a topic to write about though, you need to face the facts and understand that the likelihood that you will obtain a great deal of Web traffic, sponsorships or PR companies sending you free stuff to review within the first few months will not happen. When you select a topic it must be for you (unless it is for a company, and that is a slightly different matter), something that you are truly interested in and can devote a set amount of time each week, if not several times a week to work on.

Class Recording

Selecting a Topic

Do you like cats? Simple, write about cats. Are you an advocate for including bacon in every meal? Bam! Write about. Are you looking for a job in marketing, software development, or twirling signs? Write about it.

Because you already know what you want to get from your blog, you can now easily select a topic because you have thought through it and know you can devote time to the topic. It is as simple as that, sort of.

Your Blog Topic, Sort Of

Selecting a topic is actually quite simple; however, as we had mentioned prior you are among 152 million + other blogs, and there are likely to be other people writing about the same topic as you. So is this going to be an issue? Potentially, but it depends on the community. The topic you write about now places you in a community whether you like it or not. Food bloggers are considered foodies, social media bloggers are often called gurus (sorry, I meant full of shit), and of course game blogs are run by gamers.

Some blogger types are awesome at supporting one another, while others will make a point to comment on your site, trash you for no reason – sort of similar to a troll, but mostly based on jealousy – and on the rare occasion even write slightly cryptic blog posts trashing yours. Why yes, there are immature people on the Web.

Do not let this get in your way of befriending the competition though. Even if you are just blogging to blog, there are groups of other like minded individuals that you would do well connecting with. For those of you socially awkward people this is even easier, because all you need to do is go to their blog and post a positive comment about their thoughts. In some cases you can link back in these comments as well, but make sure that it does not come off as spam or others are doing it. Some comment systems also allow you to hyperlink your name to allow others to come back to your site.

Quite simply, if you are going to be looking for a job in marketing, write about it. Find some other bloggers that are writing about marketing – it is better if they appear to be well established, have engagement on their content, and engaged with people on social networks – and comment on their posts.

When The Realistic Nutritionist started out as a wedding blogger she found a community of wedding bloggers who ended up sharing her posts, commenting back and forth, and eventually lead to some future connections that has led her to a career as a professional blogger. Just try to keep in mind that burning bridges, even on the Web, is not ideal for the future.

What sets you apart from the competition is your personality, and of course your writing style plays a major role as well. For example, because this is a recap blog post about creating a blog, and is taught through a reddit based community; I’m using a bit stronger language than I usually would, and hitting important keywords such as cats and bacon (which coincidentally is not just writing to your audience, but organic SEO that Google loves). Either that or it is my real personality and would prefer professional connections to continue thinking I actually wear ties.

Make Your Topic Your Bitch

Your personality is what brings people back to read your blog. If you have found a community of people who like what you have to say on their posts, they may very well come back to see what you have said on your own site. This also goes for being personable on sites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc..

You can’t just write about a topic, you must make it your bitch. If you are going to devote time to a topic, do not just cover the nuts and bolts that make something work. Provide your personal insight, views, and experience about why the nuts and bolts make the topic work.

Example, Timeline has just been released to at least all North American Facebook users and that means people will be searching on Google for what it means to their business and privacy. While you could state Facebook replaced feature A with feature B, what people will continue reading your insight for is how these replacements or changes will affect them.

Do not worry if others have differing views, that is what their blog or your comment section is for. The more unique your views and thoughts are on a topic, the greater the chances that someone will want to ask for more details from you. That said, don’t unleash the entire zoo at the same time. Give readers a hook at the end and encourage them to ask questions or for clarifications.

Creating an Editorial Calendar and Sticking With It

Editorial calendars, make one as soon as you create your blog if not before. One of the faulty issues that come with blogging is that most writers are terribly inconsistent. With inconsistency comes a lack of readership, and the potential to allow your blog to wither away and die. As much as we would love everyone to add our blogs to RSS readers we simply can’t rely on it.

Use something like Google Calendar and create two weekly hour long sessions that run through the end of time. It doesn’t matter at what time or what days you pick, just make sure it is time that you can devote to either finding new topics to write about or creating a new blog post.

Once you get into a groove of writing during your designated times you will also be able to set an expectation for when your new posts will be published, and readers will know to return on those days. Hell, you can even say somewhere on your blog or at the end of your posts what days you post on. Either way pick your days and stick with it. Sporadic blogging is ok, but it is much easier to build up an audience when they know you are coming.

Session 2 – Wednesday, April 18 at 4 p.m. EST

In session two of the blogging 101 course we will cover a few of the more popular blogging content management systems (CMS), and when in particular you should look into getting your own domain. I like to think of myself as a cheap ass blogger, and would be happy to bestow upon you my cheapassery while still looking professional.

Still trying to figure out that perfect blog topic? Ask a question in the comments and I will provide some feedback.

Next week Play This Media will be hosting an introductory course on blogging through the University of Reddit.

After a rather successful experiment in teaching through U of R earlier in the year, we have decided to host another free class geared towards improving ability to communicate through digital means.

To participate in the class register on the University of Reddit, and then add the Blogging 101 course. Unlike last time I will not be using eventbrite or a newsletter to remind people of classes, and this is due to the awesome improvements that have been made to the ureddit.com website. Now you should receive messages through reddit (I know you check that more than your email anyways). If you would like me to remind you all when the next class session will occur though, just sign up to our newsletter. This newsletter will only be used for the purpose of reminding you all when new classes are going to begin, and recaps with recordings from the classes are published.

When the class session is set to start, just go to our class page. The class will be taught through LiveStream so you will likely see my mug (and beer) as well as a presentation. Sessions shouldn’t last more than 30 minutes (15 for presentation, 15 for questions), so please come to the course at the designated time. You will not have to register to ask questions during the class, just create a nickname and you are good to go. Feel free to post or ask questions anywhere on the site after, or reach me on twitter @thejournalizer.

For the first class just have a topic in mind that you want to blog about, and we will cover the rest during the first session. Have questions ready too or post them in the comments below.

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Schedule for the Blogging 101 Course

Session 1- Choosing a topic, creating an editorial calendar, and finding a community. Wednesday, April 11 from 4 p.m. EST

Session 2 – Selecting the domain/host provider and blogging content management system (CMS) that best suits you

Session 3 – Tips from a bad ass blogger, The Realistic Nutritionist. I built my wife’s site and got her started, but she has excelled beyond even my own work. With a ridiculous amount of followers, Facebook fans and site views, she can provide some insight on how to make your blog count.

Session 4 – How to market your blog, and not be a spamming D-bag.

As per last time I will use Live Stream so they will be recorded, and the sessions will last around 30 minutes.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

How does one motivate an online community? Govloop’s Engagement Strategist and GovDelivery’s Director of Engagement tell you how to fulfill member needs.

During the final session of the online communities 101 course we tackled the one question that every online community manager wants answered: What is the magic formula to motivating your members so that they engage with and create content. Govloop’s Engagement Strategist, Lauren Modeen (@exilauren ); and GovDelivery’s Director of Engagement Services, Joseph Porcelli (@josephporcelli), discussed how understanding both your members needs, and a bit of help from some communication theory will help you fulfill those needs.

Maslow, Skinner, and Motivation

Throughout Joseph and Lauren’s presentation they highlighted both Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and B.F Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism theories. Maslow believed that people base their motivation on their needs, and therefore created a hierarchy that explains the barriers that a single person needs to surpass before moving on to the next level. Where as Skinner’s coined Radical Behaviorism states:

• People are motivated by rewards
• There is a belief in reinforcement and punishment
• Reinforcement will increase the likelihood that behavior is repeated
• Punishment will result in a deceased in likelihood that behavior is repeated

Questions and Answers From Joseph and Lauren

From rewarding to engaged users, to taking conversations to social networks, both Lauren and Joseph tackle some interesting hurdles that community managers often face.

Your online community isn’t just about the engaged users, but also your Lurkers. How do you find out what they want though?

Monitoring a community seems pretty straight forward when you have active discussions occurring, but because the majority of users will never actually post a comment or tell you their story you must get creative to understand their needs.

We already know that the Adaptive Structuration Theory suggests that online community members not only want a tool that is easy to use for communicating, but also for those tools to evolve around their needs. For that reason it is important to note what all users want from the community, and that is why analytics are incredibly important in finding this information.

Join us Thursday, February 16 at 9 pm EST for our final session. Guest speaker – Govloop’s Community Manager Lauren Modeen.

The 5 W’s – Who, What, Where, When and Why

Online community tools such as Buddy Press, Drupal, WordPress, Ning and a plethora of others have built in plugins or applications that make it easy for people to moderate and collect information on their users (without breaking the users trust or your policies). By using internal analytic tools you can monitor from the inside out.

Who: Analytic tools like Google’s free app will allow you to identify information such as where a person is from, what browser they use, what sites they come from, and what types of content they look at the most on your community. By taking a look at common keywords and content you can infer what types of content do well, and if you should generate more discussions around it.

What: Your members and users can be identified based upon their actions. Data will show you whether they are returning or new users, if they are sharing your content to their social networks, and if they are logging in or creating profiles. This information will allow you to figure out what role they play in your ecosystem, and if you need to adjust your methodology or increase tools that would benefit the greater population.

Where: To identify where your members are coming from, and where they are leaving your site there are several options. The first place to look is at your referral traffic, followed by the identifying the keywords that people search for and organically bring them to the community. You can also create funnels on registration pages to see where people drop off and give up on the process, or other forms that span over a series of pages. When looking from the outside in, tools like AddThis will allow you to see what content was shared to what social network, and how many people came back to the community as a result.

When: During strategy building, ad placement planning, and campaign development it is important to note when your community gets the most traffic. If there are stronger periods of traffic it may be ideal to place external campaigns around that time; however, if you are seeking to build up traffic during slowed periods this data will also be just as useful.

Why: There are several additional questions that come with the Why of monitoring and analyzing your communities data. Such as “Why are people not engaging? Why are people sharing specific content more than other types? Or Why was there a spike in traffic?” The data from your internal analytic tool will allow you to easily find this information.

External Monitoring Tools

Clearly there are several internal monitoring and analytic tools that are free, and all the same there are some great options for monitoring your external community as well. The following video will highlight how you can track conversations on Twitter and Facebook, as well as find where your members or targeted audiences are already talking.

[Image via Angela Paige]

Looking to build an online community from scratch? Use this model to build a solid foundation based on theory, data, and research.

Online communities are not just about engagement , but also about providing information to people on several different levels. Before you can you understand why people create content or contribute to your community, it is important to you understand why they are there and what needs it fulfils.

Communication theory will not only help guide you to better understanding your community, but all online communities in particular. Further, if you combine past research and theory that specifically relates to computer mediated communication you will also find a model that allows you to generate a solid foundation for any online community. More specifically something called the Self-sustaining online community ecosystem model or SSOCEM (pronounced Sock-um).

While there are numerous computer mediated communication theories that apply, SSOCEM focuses on three specific ones and runs parallel to a psychological theory.

Creating a Foundation

When it comes time to build your online community there is one primary question you must ask: What will it be about?

Once the theme has been identified you must do some research to ensure there are no other communities like it that are active, and if there are you must be able to provide something unique enough that people will utilize it. Another aspect to note that the more specific and unique the community, the greater the likelihood of there being less people that would utilize it. In other words be unique, but don’t be so specific that it excludes a majority of the related users. Additionally you uniqueness can also come in the form of a better offering (better tools, access to better information or experts, etc.)

Now that you have a theme and identified that there is a need for the online community to exist it is time to take a look at how you will research who will likely benefit from it, and what their needs are.

Communication Theory and the Self-Sustaining Online Community Ecosystem Model

Phase 1: New Member Discovery

When building your foundation you must place yourself in the shoes of your directed audience. The community is about the users, not the brand that it represents. The more that your community can provide them, the more you and your brand can get from it (whether it be customer service focused, social, professional, or even political).

Lurkers and content consumers will make up the majority of any online communities user base, and because all users initially start at this level it is important to fulfil their most basic of needs, and based on their level of motivation they will progress and evolved through your ecosystem.

Based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs a person will seek to fulfill their safety needs after they have their physiological needs provided. If we compare this to a new user seeking information that will assist them in fulfilling this need, and your community houses that information they are likely to find it. Whether it’s because one of your members already asked it or you had the content seeded for further discussion, a community is a library of information from many collective minds.

If it’s easy enough to navigate and use, this could also increase the chances that the user will want to share their own thoughts or expand on what has been said; however, based on statistics alone this person will remain a Lurker.

Details on what roles members play – Session 1 recap.

Phase 2: The Adaptive Structuration Theory – Why your users are not engaging

The Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) acts as the first barrier between a member being a Lurker or an engaged user. If a person can use the community tools properly or adapt to it, combined with a motivation that falls after the Saftey need based on the Hierarchy of Needs, they will likely want to engage rather than simply consume or share content.

Further, as the community interacts more and more with the tools associated with it they do expect a certain amount of change to occur based on their feedback (For further details on AST seek the theory’s founders, DeSanctis and Poole, research Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use:Adaptive Structuration Theory).

Details on community tools and understanding engagement – Session 2 recap.

Phase 3: Communication Accommodation Theory – Finding your engaged users

As members begin to engage with one another and the tools are evolving based on their needs there are still other roadblocks that prevent them from advancing. Based on past research and my own independent study users frequently noted that they would observe how other members were interacting before engaging with them. Simply put they learn about the social norms of a community before attempting to belong.

For a person to want to belong (the third attribute in The Hierarchy of Needs) to a community means they must adapt to it, fit in, and converge with them. The second communication theory that acts as a barrier is that of the Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) that states a person will either converge (to belong) or diverge (purposefully or lazily not align with social norms). If they converge with the member base they will not only belong, but potentially even be motivated to increase their esteem needs (fourth attribute of The Hierarchy of Needs). As someone who now belongs to the community they may receive positive praise or reinforcement that fulfills their esteem needs.

Details on creating policies to increase engagement and protect your members – Session 3 recap.

Phase 4: The Spiral of Silence and Your Power Users – Where your most engaged users are or will be

Power Users are your communities 1%. They create the most content, are frequent contributors, and many of your users are familiar with them (either based on their name or username). The Spiral of Silence works both as a barrier and as a tool for members though. The difference between an advanced member who contributes frequently, and that of the Power User is based on both their motivation and ability to have others converge to their methods.

Someone who wants to appear as an expert in their field (or the community’s theme) will be seeking self-actualization (based on the final tier of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs). Simply put a Power User not only belongs to the community, but wields the power that comes from surpassing the barriers found in the three prior communication theories.

Details and insights from a Community Manager, Reddit’s General Manager Erik Martin.

SSOCEM

Feel free to use this model as you please, but if you repost it or alter it let me know. Communication is ever changing, and it should always be improved upon regardless of the author.

How to use this model: During each phase there are questions you should incorporate into your strategy and planning. If you can properly answer the questions, and ensure you can motivate different aspects of your community to fulfill their role in the ecosystem you will have not only built a solid foundation, but potentially a successful online community.

Understand that each member type plays a vital role in your community. Whether it is the Active Lurker sharing your content and helping you grow, or the members engaging and creating content so that lurkers can share it. Online communities are self-sustaining only if you allow members to fall into their own categories. Don’t try to add gimmicks like badges to get a lurker to engage, when it may in fact result in a failure to communicate and a complete turn-off from the community all together.

[Image via The Mudflats]

Super Bowl 46 is nearing, and the ads are already appearing: Seinfeld and Ferris Bueller return in ad form.

On Sunday, February 5 the New York Giants will face off against the New England Patriots for Super Bowl 46, and various Super Bowl ad teasers have been slowly released to the Web. What started with a new nondescript YouTube account was an initial teaser showing Mathew Broderick portraying his role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Some thought it was a potential ad to a sequel to the first film, but it became quite clear that it was going to be a teaser for something that would released on February 5, which of course is the Super Bowl. Day later a full or extended version of the ad was published on Honda’s YouTube account showing what the teaser was about.

An ad featuring the Honda CRV, with a 2:30 second modern day version of Ferris Bueller’s day off. Honestly they did in under three minutes what could have been a terrible hour and a half film that may have even incorporated 3D, which would truly ruin our childhood memories associated with this film

No Car For You!

Honda wasn’t the only one brewing up a pot of nostalgia. Acura also released a video showing Jerry Seinfeld portraying himself and a few parts from his show from the 90s, and yes the Soup Nazi is back.